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Tuesday, 30 April 2013

I thought I'd make you all aware as I haven't really advertised this very much, that I also have a youtube channel. Which if you like my blog you should definitely check out, just like my blog it is based around fashion and beauty related things. On my channel I mainly go in to more depth about the things I may show on here, -so if you prefer listening to people waffle on, rather then reading the waffle- then please check it out.

It really would mean a lot to me if you would have a nose at it and maybe even subscribe, as I am quite new to the blogging and youtubing scene so you guys would really be helping me out! I try to post on there at least once a week but it is a lot more to film a video than post on a blog so it won't be as routine as this!

Monday, 29 April 2013

It's time for my weekly favourites, I'm actually really enjoying these posts -even though this is only my second one!- I've been thinking about what to put in this all week, that's how much I've been looking forward to doing it!

This week I purchased some of the BarryM Gelly Hi Shines and I think they are amazing, their colours are incredible, it took me forever to choose which ones to get. In the end I only got 3, these were Blueberry, Papaya and Lychee. They are honestly my favourite nail varnish's around, hence why theyare on my wishlist as I want more! The colours shown here are Prickly Pear, Watermelon and Grapefruit, you can buy them from either Boots or Superdrug.

At first glance this will probably look really out of place on this wish list, but let me explain. I want to make some DIY above the knuckle rings using this, I also want to jewellery wire in silver and gold but to start with this gun metal would be perfect. To make these rings I will be following a tutorial from Nicole Guerriero's youtube channel, which you can find here. This can be got from any craft store but just due to laziness I found it on Amazon.

Now, this is where watching American youtubers has it's drawbacks, you find out about great American clothing websites that you can't order from. But here's the catch, this dress is from SheInside which has free shipping worldwide, which is absolutely incredible! For only £25.68, it's also a fantastic bargain, toughen it up with a leather jacket and some cute heeled sandals and you're good to go. You can purchase this from SheInside with -I repeat free shipping-.

Also from SheInside, is this awesome Bart Simpson patterned denim shirt! I've never seen anything so cool in my life -I'm not even exaggerating with that statement-. It would look so cool with a pair of distressed black skinny jeans and some espadrilles, maybe even with a black bowler hat. You can get this here.

This cute little black dress from H&M, it is perfect for the Spring/Summer. For Spring you could layer under a leather or denim jacket, and to add some extra warmth pair with some heeled booties. In the Summer you could risk the no jacket look -hopefully, cause this is England- and show of the beautiful cut out back with the sort of aztec-style straps, a pair of simple flipflops or some some good ol' heeled sandals would be perfect with it.

These shoes are my new love, hitting the floral trend and it my favourite style on shoe. I don't think I could actually find a better pair of shoes. If you where to find a pretty colour-block summer dress and match it to one of the colours in the shoes, for example orange, this would be a perfect summer look. These shoes are from New Look, and are a fantastic price of £27.99.

The last thing a have here is definitely my favourite of these things, I love the contrast of the aztec print with the leather lapels. Unfortunately it's very unlikely I will be able to buy this jacket as it is a rather expensive £99.99! Hopefully I'll come into some money and be able to splurge on this, if you want to purchase it yourself, you can get it from Zara.

Hope you like the things that I've shown you, thanks for reading becciixx.

Sunday, 28 April 2013

Like every person that's interested in beauty I have a vast amount of brushes, but I only really like a handful of them. It's taken me a very long time to find the brushes that suit me and that I really like, but I'm sure some of them won't come as a surprise to any of you guys!

I use brushes for a variety of things but there are only 4 that I find are really with mentioning, these consist of an eyebrow brush, a foundation brush, a gel liner brush and a powder brush. I still haven't found a eye-shadow brush worthy of being a holy grail brush, I just find I get the most pigmented colour when using my finger to apply it. Also I tend not to use a brush for my concealer, as I find that the warmth from my fingers helps blend the concealer in easier and not give it a sort of caked on effect.

The first brush I'm going to talk about it is the real techniques buffing brush -told you it wouldn't come as a surprise-. It's just the perfect size and texture to apply my foundation, I find that the flat foundation brushes just don't work for me so the round head to this brush is ideal. The brush handle itself is actually a really good length, some brushes just get in their own way or are just not workable. I got this brush from the core collection of the real techniques which you can purchase here.

May as well go straight to the next real techniques brush -of course their was going to be more than one featured!- This time it's the brow brush from the starter kit, its the perfect angled brush I've come across, before this I was using brow pencils, but this gives me the best shape. I use this with the MUA Pro-brow Ultimate Eyebrow Kit to get the best results. You can purchase the starter kit here, and the eyebrow kit from Superdrug.

This next brush is from a brand I haven't heard of before, it's just something I got in a gift set and it's the Blush Professional eye brush. Again this brush is just at the perfect angle for me to apply gel liner with, it's not too bendy that you can't get a precision line but not too hard that you feel like you're stabbing yourself in the eye. You can only purchase this brush with the set with either comes as a 7 brush set or 18, both of which you can buy from here.

Now this last brush is one of the newest in my collection but it has quickly taken over as my favourite powder brush. The bareMinerals Flawless Face brush is so soft on your skin -there's nothing worse than a scratchy make-up brush. It packs just enough product onto it with out giving a really obvious powdery finish, which is never good! You can pick this up today here.

Hope this helps you to chose some brushes for yourself, the real techniques brushes really are a great investment! Also another brush brand I really want to check out is Stigma, I have heard great things about their brushes so check those out too!

Saturday, 27 April 2013

One of my favourite colour polish's to wear is blue, so I thought I'd do a post on my favourites! I have so many different blues so it was very difficult to narrow it down -but I just about managed.- I've included something of everything here, some glitter polishes a beetle-juice and just some plain polish's, if I wanted to bore you I could easily have written about all of them!

Models Own, Indian Ocean- This is probably my favourite nail polish, I don't even know how to start describing it! It has a duochrome finish that changes from blue to a pinky colour. There are flecks of gold shimmer that run through it that are visible the whole time, when you change the angle that the light shines on your nail a pink shimmer will appear. Anyway trust me it's beautiful -my explanation is just atrocious!-

BarryM, Cobalt Blue- This is a dark blue that is just so vibrant and pretty, I have struggled to find a dark blue that still has some warmth to it and this is perfect! As it is so vibrant I think it's still suitable to wear throughout Spring even though it's dark.

W7, Blue Mosaic- This brand of nail varnish is just incredible, they glitter polishes are so different! It has more of a mosaic feel to it rather than glitter, even though the flecks in it are gold and black, this is due the fact that when you build up the coats the flecks appear matte.

Kiko- I think you can get this brand in the UK, but I'm not sure as I purchased this in Venice. But this is just a sky blue colour, that again is very vibrant -I love a vibrant nail colour.- The formula is also really nice, it goes on so smoothly which just adds to the prettiness of the colour. Unfortunately I don't know the names of these Kiko colour, as it's in Italian I think!

W7, Sheer Blue- Another W7 polish, I should let you know you can get these on the website Nail Polish Direct for a great price of £1.99! This is such a beautiful light blue and it really easy to build up to make it opaque.

BarryM, Aqua Glitter- This is one of my all time favourite glitter polishes, I can't wait to try a gradient effect with it like in my last post but using a blue polish instead probably the Sheer Blue. This is just so easy to build up or to just wear on its own, it just reminds me of little tiny jewels -sounds silly I know, but it does-.

Kiko- This nail polish reminds me of the Indian Ocean just without the duochrome. It''s not that's easily build-able as it is very translucent but it's definitely worth the few coats needed to produce a very gorgeous colour.

Friday, 26 April 2013

Now I love a good fashion magazine, but I don't particularly like the celebrity gossip that comes with most affordable fashion mags like More or Look. But Company magazine just has the right balance of both! My favourite thing about it is the way it looks and looks -this may sound really weird, but you would understand if you look/feel it. I keep them all on show as their spines are just so cute, every month the pattern changes to something even cuter! Also the whole magazine has like a cardboardy feel to it -which may not sound very nice- but honestly don't knock it till you've felt it!

Every month the magazine features a 'How I did it', this month is was about 'How have a career in fashion', which was extremely helpful for me as this is the career path I want to go down. This changes every month though so there will be something for you, in the past there's been, how to start your own business and.... These are actually full of some really helpful tips and if you find something that relates to you I can grantee it will help you reach your goal.

Another feature is that at
the beginning of every magazine there is a ‘how we are wearing the trends’,
this is really helpful as they show some fully made outfits if you’re looking
for some inspiration, or just some items if you know you like that trend. One
of the best things is that the outfits are created by people in the fashion
industry so they are proper on trend.

Something that I find really fun is the
‘Unlikely style icon’ this features something or someone that has fallen in line
with a current trend. For example the last few months featured Miss Hannigan
from Annie and a zebra crossing –this may sound crazy but it’s the monochrome
trend-. I basically love all the parts that relates back to trends.

Obviously it still has all the usual stuff that gossip magazines have so a bit on celebrities but usually only one is interviewed, unless it's about fashion, some horoscopes thrown in and a few columns as well. It really is the perfect balance for me between the fashion and gossip, I enjoy every single page of it.

Definitely give this a read, it should be available in any newsagents or supermarket, so check it out!

Thursday, 25 April 2013

I'm having a slight obsession with bareMinerals cosmetics
–so expect a lot more posts on their products, maybe even an extremely long
post on a few all at once-. But any way moving on, I have finally found a
mascara that love and with a perfect brush. The mascara is called ‘Big
Tease’ and is just in black –I can’t really pull off the whole coloured eyelash
thing.- It adds really great length and volume to my lashes, which I actually
find really hard to get with a mascara, but this finally lives up to what I
want. And I’ll tell ya how it does it…

The brush is like nothing I
have ever seen before, one side of the brush has long bristles which allows the separation of lashes and to
lengthen the lashes, whilst the other side has no bristles more of a spiral shape which increases the volume. This brush is probably the best brush I have ever used,
it provides clump free lashes and gives the perfect amount of drama to your
lashes.

Before the mascara is applied.

After about two coats of the mascara

And unfortunately I can't find where it can be purchased, it is no longer on the bareMinerals website but I think you should probably be able to just it on amazon or ebay. It's not a cheap product however -and I don't usually say this- it is definitely worth the money.

If you know of any really good mascara's -cause I don't think can get hold of this one again- please let me know! Thankyou for reading, becciixxFollow my blog on bloglovin'!

Tuesday, 23 April 2013

Taking about disappointing products is never a fun thing to do, I always feel a little bit bad! But remember these are just my views, it doesn't mean they won't work for you as I know a few people who love some of these products.

Olay Complete Care Gradual Tan- I am seriously struggling to find a suitable fake tan for my face, the one I use on my body is St Morez which is really good but is not suitable to be used on facial skin. This Olay Face Tan just does not do anything for me, I've used it numerous times and I just don't see a difference in my colour, maybe it's just so gradual that it's just about to kick in before I stop using it cause I'm bored! But all I know is I definitely won't be repurchasing this again, however one plus is that it does have an spf of 15, which always justifies a thumbs up in my book!

Maybelline Fit Me Foundation- Now I don't want to slag this product off too much simply because I did get the wrong shade, I thought this was the lightest one but it was much to dark for me, so maybe I'll give it another try when I have a tan. I just found that for me it did not give enough coverage and I didn't like the finish of it either. I like the concealer from this collection so I'm not saying the whole collection is bad, just that this foundation was not my favourite.

Great Hair Shampoo- I have both the shampoo and conditioner to this set and I love the conditioner it leaves my hair feeling soft and nourished which it should as it has Moroccan Oil extract in it. But with the shampoo, I could just not get it to lather up no matter how much water I put on my hair so I just felt like it was a little useless and wasn't really washing my hair.

Maybelline Dream Fresh BB- I'm not painting a very good picture for Maybelline here, both make-up products I'm featuring are by them but I do love Maybelline just a shame about these! This just has no benefits at all, I see no change with my skin, I thought that BB creams were must to do at least something not just sit there completely invisible on your face. -Sounds a bit harsh but it's true-.

Clean & Clear Blackhead Clearing Cleanser- I just don't know how to right about this product, it did what it said on the tin but did a lot more than I wanted it to. I found that after using this for about a week my skin around my nose started to become oilier making my make-up not sit as well as previously. The product smells strongly of alcohol so much so it made my eyes water, and I think the harshness was striping my skin and making it produce more oils. As I have quite oily skin anyway this was not ideal at all so steer clear of this if you have oily skin.

Santa Monica Self Tanning Wipes- Lastly I have another fake tanning product that I wanted to use on my face, and again this was a let down. To be honest it did only cost 99p so I didn't expect too much, I was just hoping to find a little gem, but unfortunately not.

Hope this gives you some insight if you were thinking of buying any of these products or similar, thanks for reading, becciixx.

Monday, 22 April 2013

It's that time again, a nail post! I wanted to do something really pretty than would help my tan -fake tan to be correct- to stand out, so of course it had to be a light colour so I went for this really pretty lilac. But to make it more fun I added one of my favourite trends, a bit of gradient.

Sorry about the quality of the pictures, my camera did not like the glitter and the light colour -to be fair I don't think I had it on the right setting actually-. But as you can see the lilac colour is the base and then I used a sponge to create a gradient with the silver glitter. I just think it is so pretty and I've had so many compliments on them, so you should definitely try out a gradient if you haven't already! It's so simple to do, just use a triangle make-up sponge to apply a lot of varnish to the top and work you're way down when the varnish is thinning out to create a faded effect.

To create this look I used two BarryM polish's, they have a great range of glitter polishes! The lilac colour is in the shade Berry Ice Cream, which I have to repurchase as you can probably tell from the state of the bottle and the clear crack in the varnish you can see through the glass. The glitter is simply in the shade Silver Glitter, and it just goes so nicely with like every colour, it's also really build-able to be used on it's own or put on a thinner layer to use as a topcoat.

Hope you enjoy the look of these nails, think I may try it out with some different colours next so stay tuned for some pictures of that!

Sunday, 21 April 2013

I've decided that every week I'm going to show you some things that I love this month, I will be featuring fashion, beauty and maybe even some home-ware things. I will be sure to link the websites that I found the items from so you can easily find them if you are thinking about buying them yourself!

This homiés t-shirt is my fave! Urban Outfitters stock it for about £30 I think, but thanks to Barbara's youtube channel 'thepersianbabe', I found this on Ebay for only £8.99! And I love it, it would look great with some monochrome patterned trousers -exactly how Barbara styled it- and a either a bomber jacket or a bright coloured cardigan.

I love sandal type heels as I think they are casual enough to be worn in the day, if I could I would wear heels every day but just living in a town I feel like it would be over the top. So classier heels like these would be perfect with a pair of skinny jeans and a jumper, and then I could get away with it! These shoes are from Forever 21 for only £19.75 which for a pair of 4.5 inch heels is very reasonable!

The ionic Zara office city bag, this is all over the blogging world so I'm sorry to be the millionth person that is going to rave about this, I've seen so many reviews and I still need a laptop case as I'm carrying it around in a plastic bag right now -opps-. But for £49.99, being a laptop case and a handbag, is definitely worth it.

These dresses are incredible and are both from Motel Rocks, if you haven't checked out there website before you MUST! At the moment they are giving students a 25% discount, so get on there soon. The denim dress with the chiffon sleeves is just so awesome, and with some Dr Martens, would be insane! The red dress is much more sophisticated and I was hoping to wear it to my Summer Ball -second prom but less fancy-, but I'm not too sure if I'm going to get it any-more cause I might try to find something more summery. Both dresses are £38 and I do find that a little expensive for my price range but maybe I'll treat myself.

I have a slight addicted to sunnies at the moment, and these are just the cutest! The mint frames almost look like blue eyebrows and I just think they are a great addition to the standard round lenses. For only £12 from ASOS, I can't wait to be snapping these up!

I have this beautiful watch from Kate Spade, her watches are just beautiful but I was particularly drawn to this beauty. The mother of pearl back and the crystal gems around the clock-face contrasts with the heavy gold strap perfectly. I did struggle to find this on a website that ships to the UK as it is an American site, I eventually found it on a website called Nordstrom for £172.88.

The last fashion piece I have is just this really basic midi skirt from Boohoo for only £10. I've wanted a midi skirt for a while now but I wasn't sure if it would suit me because of my height -it will probably be a ankle length skirt on me!- I just love the way that midi skirts look and this navy colour is perfect to pair with some bright crop tops and creepers.

The final thing I have here is just this magnetic photo holder from Debenhams, I just think it is soooo cute and would look lovely on my computer desk, however for £20 I'm not sure I want to get it right now.

Hope you enjoyed the first of this weekly edition, until next time, becciixx.

Saturday, 20 April 2013

The whole panic with getting skinny for summer may seem so daunting and I though it was too, until I thought about it more and got inspiration from twitter and instagram accounts! It doesn't have to be a drastic change to your life and doesn't have to be something that takes over your life either!

All it takes to get going is a little bit of determination, if you want this enough then it shouldn't be too hard to find yourself some motivation, whether it's torturing yourself by looking at hot bodies -this is my method- or just wanting to start a healthier life style. Also setting your goal is a very good way to make yourself get going -just make sure it is realistic for you!- One piece of advice for you is that do not listen to BMI's, for women I think they are very inaccurate as if you have larger breasts this weight is not taken into account!

When it comes to exercising you don't want to start up on too much, the last thing you want to do is strain your body so much that you can't keep to your routine for the next few days! Increasing the amount of reps or time that you do an exercise for it a great way to ensure you are progressing further without putting too much strain or your muscles. Knowing what exercises will be beneficial to you and the part of your body you want to work on can be difficult if you are just starting up as you don't know what parts certain exercises effect. Looking at magazines or websites can really help with learning what's best for you, Women's Health magazine is very good for both exercising and healthy eating tips. My favourite Twitter account for exercises is Fitness & Nutrition, -this is where I got my fitness routine from.-

Finding time to exercise can also be difficult, but if you spend your evenings in front of the TV, there's nothing stopping you from getting up and doing some squats in front of the TV! And this is perfectly fine to do, its not cheating at all, if anything it'll make it easier as you'll be distracted and the time will go quicker. -You won't even feel the burn as much!-

You can't just exercise, still eat rubbish and expect to get good results! You don't have to spend tons of money on fine dining healthy food, it only takes a few changes that won't cost any more than you already spend. Take a look at your portion sizes, are you eating a lot for just one meal? If you think you are then start it give yourself one less roast potato or only one sandwich rather than two. I've heard that eating 4 smaller meals throughout the day with healthy snacks when you get hungry is much better for you than 3 larger meals. Also replacing sugary snacks with something more healthy will be very beneficial and you will start seeing changes fairly quickly, -so chuck out that Terry's Chocolate Orange for a real orange, and you'll be off to a good start'.-

What you drink will also effect your toning or weight loss, as you all know water is essential when exercising but you should also make sure you are drinking it constantly throughout the day to increase your weight loss, improve your health -and it is also great for your skin, which is obviously a god thing!- Milk is also great for your muscles and to help stop cramp if you have over exercised, so get drinking.

I just have two last things to say, if you are trying to lose weight or tone up, make sure you are doing it for you, no one else, for you! The decisions that you make about losing weight should not be influenced by the media, or from the stereotypical 'skinny for summer'! Everybody shape is beautiful and you should be proud of your body!

The last thing is that starving yourself is never the way to go, it's so unhealthy and as soon as you start eating again your weight will start increasing again. Eating healthy will make you lose weight -maybe not as quickly- but you won't be putting your health at risk!

I hope this has given some of you some inspiration, until next time, becciixx.

Friday, 19 April 2013

I finally jumped on the beauty band wagon and got my hands on some Rimmel Apocalips lip lacquers. Anyone who follows beauty bloggers or keeps up with hyped up beauty products themselves will have heard of these gems from Rimmel. I had been putting of buying them simply because I didn't need them, but I gave into temptation -mainly due to them being on offer but shh!- That being said I am so thrilled that I got them!

It took me forever decide on what colour to get as the colour range is so varied and all the colours are gorgeous, but I finally decided on 'Stellar' and 'Nova'-definitely going to be getting more though.- There are 8 different shades, ranging from nude to a mauve, making these a great choice of colours as there's something for everyone.

Rimmel says that 'it's neither a lipstick nor a gloss.' 'The intense rich colour of a lipstick, enhanced by a satin smooth shine.' I totally agree with this, the pigmentation is incredible and drys almost completely matte with just a hint of shine. The matte finish on this is only a little bit drying, but I find this with most matte lip products, -so don't take my judgements on this into account.- The doe foot applicator makes applying the lacquer very precisely and the pool of liquid in the applicator means you only have to dip in once or twice.

The colour 'Nova'(left) is a gorgeous barbie pink and I fell in love with it straight away -this is definitely my favourite of the bunch!- I find that it has a slight neon feel to it -but maybe that's just my pale skin translating.- 'Stellar'(right) is a fantastic mix of a bright red and a coral, which I have been after for a really long time. For anyone that finds red lipstick intimating maybe this would be a perfect starting point to ease yourself into some bright colours.

As boots have a three for two on all beauty product and at a special price of £4.99, these are fantastic for the price and even if they were more expensive I'd jump at the chance to buy them! I do believe that YSL do a high-end version which is obviously wayyy more expensive but I've heard that Rimmel's are just as good. You can purchase these from Boots here.

Thursday, 18 April 2013

It was so sunny today so I decide to show you my outfit! This outfit of the day is just really casual and effortless- hence the post name- and I just love the way it looks. I'm so glad its getting sunnier as I can finally wack out some of my maxi skirts, even though they cover your legs the winter breeze can still get up it! I don't wear my maxi skirt enough, and I've only ever know it on a night out so I decided to wear it during the day to college! This is probably one of my favourite pieces from my wardrobe, and I can't wait to get my hands on some more maxi skirts as this is my only one! My nails are sooo summery in my opinion, the mint blue contrasts brilliantly with the bright pink and stands out against the burgundy skirt.